Somaliland passes central banking law, eyes foreign banks

HARGEISA, April 23 Somaliland has passed a law
that formally establishes a central bank, and is now poised to
pass another to set up commercial banks in a bid to attract
foreign lenders to start operating in the self-declared country
by 2013.

Somaliland, a breakaway state in the northeast of Somalia,
remains unrecognised internationally.

It has no formal banking sector and its people rely heavily
on remittances from diaspora communities in Europe, North
America and the United Arab Emirates, as there are no ATMs or
loan facilities.

"The President has signed the Central Banking Act into law,"
Abdi Dirir, governor of Somaliland's Central Bank, told Reuters
on Monday.

"We are expecting the Commercial Banking Act to be passed in
the next three to four months," Dirir said.

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